An attempt is made to share the truth regarding issues concerning Israel and her right to exist as a Jewish nation. This blog has expanded to present information about radical Islam and its potential impact upon Israel and the West. Yes, I do mix in a bit of opinion from time to time.

Friday, November 30, 2012

The passage of U.N.
General Assembly Resolution 181, also known as the Partition Plan, on
Nov. 29, 1947, marked an enormous moral victory for the Jewish people in
their effort to gain international recognition for their right to
Jewish state. Five months later, David Ben-Gurion declared Israel's
independence, referring to the U.N. General Assembly’s partition
resolution from Nov. 29.

But was it true that
Israel owed its very existence to the U.N., as it became popularly
perceived years later? According to a legal study commissioned in the
late 1970s by the U.N. Secretariat’s Special Unit on Palestinian Rights,
Resolution 181 was the "juridicial basis" of the State of Israel
according to international law. This same line of argument was repeated
just this week by an Israeli analyst in the opinion section of the New
York Times, who wrote that the vote on Nov. 29 was the "legal basis for
the establishment of the State of Israel.”

Leading international
legal scholars have vociferously rejected this claim. The noted
Australian legal scholar Professor Julius Stone wrote in 1980 that
Israel "does not derive its legal existence from the Partition Plan."

In recent days Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was clearly in the
middle of cobbling together a tenuous cease fire agreement between the
Hamas Palestinians and Israel with a major assist from the Obama
Administration's BFF, Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood
President/Dictator of Egypt. Time will tell how long the agreement
lasts.
Nonetheless, while the Obama Administration is taking their victory
lap around Gaza, objective observers will take note of the broader
landscape that has befallen Israel over the last four years.

A front page feature essay by Investor's Business Daily this past week is one of the most comprehensive summaries we have seen. We strongly encourage you to read the entirety (link here),
but if nothing else, study the graphic and consider the impact of just
the excerpt below. Then ask yourself, just how good a friend of Israel
is Barack Obama?

Warren
Buffett, probably the world’s most successful investor, has said that
anything good that happened to him could be traced back to the fact that
he was born in the right country, the United States, at the right time
(1930). A quarter of a century ago, when The World in 1988
light-heartedly ranked 50 countries according to where would be the best
place to be born in 1988, America indeed came top. But which country
will be the best for a baby born in 2013?

To answer this, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a sister company of The Economist,
has this time turned deadly serious. It earnestly attempts to measure
which country will provide the best opportunities for a healthy, safe
and prosperous life in the years ahead.

Its quality-of-life index links the results of subjective
life-satisfaction surveys—how happy people say they are—to objective
determinants of the quality of life across countries. Being rich helps
more than anything else, but it is not all that counts; things like
crime, trust in public institutions and the health of family life matter
too. In all, the index takes 11 statistically significant indicators
into account. They are a mixed bunch: some are fixed factors, such as
geography; others change only very slowly over time (demography, many
social and cultural characteristics); and some factors depend on
policies and the state of the world economy.

• We have not heard one word from any Israeli official
expressing any sincere concern to save the peace process. On the
contrary, our people have witnessed, and continue to witness, an
unprecedented intensification of military assaults, the blockade,
settlement activities and ethnic cleansing, particularly in Occupied
East Jerusalem, and mass arrests, attacks by settlers and other
practices by which this Israeli occupation is becoming synonymous with
an apartheid system of colonial occupation, which institutionalizes the plague of racism and entrenches hatred and incitement.
• Yet, we must repeat here once again our warning: the window of
opportunity is narrowing and time is quickly running out. The rope of
patience is shortening and hope is withering. The innocent lives that
have been taken by Israeli bombs – more than 168 martyrs, mostly
children and women, including 12 members of one family, the Dalou
family, in Gaza – are a painful reminder to the world that this racist, colonial occupation is making the two-State solution and the prospect for realizing peace a very difficult choice, if not impossible.

MEMRI has issued a new report titled “Muslim Brotherhood On Operation
Pillar Of Defense: Antisemitic Statements, Calls For Jihad Against
Israel” that examines the antisemitic statements and calls for Jihad
issued by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood during the latest Gaza
crisis. The report begins:

Following the assassination of ‘Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades
Commander Ahmad Al-Ja’bari and the launch of operation Pillar of
Defense, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) were prominent in leading
popular anti-Israel sentiment and calls to sever diplomatic ties with
Israel,[1] in contrast to President Morsi’s commitment to the peace
agreement.[2] The MB staged protests outside mosques throughout Egypt in
solidarity with the Palestinians.[3]

At the United Nations we are witnessing the creation ex nihilo of a foreign country, which never existed, and accepting the
claims of the “Palestinian Arabs”, by giving them the land whose memory
kept the Jews together as a people and brought them back to Jerusalem
after the Holocaust.

The Western community at the United
Nations, including my miserable Italy, just adopted the Nazis' strateg.
Cunning in wickedness, the Germans dangled before their victims the
possibility of saving themselves at the expense of other Jews.

In
this case, the Jews to be sacrified are all of those living in Judea
and Samaria, but ultimately it is the entire State of Israel, since a
Palestinian State would only arise upon the fall of Israel.

I am
ashamed that my country will vote for the first step towards officially
prohibiting Jews or any other faith from living in a certain area, the
first since Nazi Germany, which sought a country that was “jüdenrein”,
or cleansed of Jews.

1. How can a place with no elected officials be considered a state?
Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, last won
an election in 2005. His term ended in 2009. The Palestinian Legislative
Council was last elected in 2006. Much of the Palestinian Authority is
run by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad who has never been elected to
anything.

The Palestinian Authority has refused to call elections, but found
the time to put forward statehood bids. Shouldn’t there be an election
before a statehood bid?

2. How can Palestine be a state if it’s actually two mutually hostile states run by two different governments?
The West Bank is governed by the Palestinian Authority. Gaza is run
by Hamas. Each have their appointed politicians, militias and officials.
Each is a mini-state. Despite several unity attempts, both remain
divided between two mutually hostile armed camps, which are unable to
agree on elections.
Shouldn’t there at least be a single Palestinian government that runs
both the West Bank and Gaza as a prerequisite for statehood?

A leader of the third-largest Palestinian faction told the Egyptian newspaper El-Balad Thursday that the truce with Israel will be brief and that Palestinians are braced for a "more savage and bloody round" of fighting with Israel.

"We are preparing for a new, more savage round," Dr. Mohammed
Al-Hindi, a leading Palestinian Islamic Jihad figure told the newspaper.
"We are in a short truce (hudna), the Israeli enemy is preparing for further rounds of war in Gaza."

1) It
should be no surprise that 130-odd countries took the rather technical step of of
voting recognize Palestine as a “non-member” in the U.N. General Assembly. That
is roughly the number of countries that already directly recognize Palestine as
a state! If they have already actually recognized the state themselves, voting
to extend such recognition for some particular purpose is hardly
precedent-making. (Palestine’s international-recognition level rivals Israel’s.)

2) The
apparent diplomatic victory is itself a consolation prize for the collapse of
Abbas’ bid last year for actual U.N. membership for Palestine, which was
rejected at the Security Council. If that effort was to be a “diplomatic tsunami,” as Israel’s defense minister
warned, the current ploy is at most a chill breeze.

With
the nations of Europe and the rest of the world lining up to support
the PLO bid to receive non-member state status at the UN General
Assembly, it is worth noting two anniversaries of related but forgotten
events.

Of course, everyone knows the obvious
anniversary - Nov. 29, 1947 was the day the UN General Assembly passed
the plan to recommend the partition the British Mandate of Palestine
into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accepted the plan. The
Arabs -- both local and regional - rejected it. The
local Arabs who 25 years later became known as "Palestinians,"
responded to the passage of UNGA resolution 181 by launching a terror
war against the Jews. Their war was commanded by Iraqi
and Lebanese terror masters and supported by the British military and
its Arab Legion from Transjordan.

Today is the 65th anniversary of
the UN General Assembly vote on the recommendation that Palestine be partitioned
into a Jewish and an Arab state. This followed the surrender by Britain of
the Mandate for Palestine, under which the British were supposed to work for the
establishment of a Jewish homeland from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean
Sea. The British found themselves unwilling, finally, to cope with Arab
violence and resistance to the Mandate and threw up their hands.

It was this vote that led, the
following May, to Israel's declaration of independence as a state. In
solidly rejecting this recommendation, the Arabs rendered the portion of
Palestine that could have been an Arab state unclaimed Mandate
land.

Twenty-four years ago, almost to the day, in 1988, I stood in a large
hall in Algeria and saw Yasir Arafat declare the independence of a
Palestinian state. It was forty-one years, almost to the day in 1947,
when the UN offered a Palestinian state. Twelve years ago Israel and the
United States officially offered a Palestinian state as part of a
compromise at deal in the Camp David summit of 2000.

Arguably, despite all their errors, the Palestinian movement has made
progress since those events, though it is not very impressive progress.
Yet in real terms there is no real Palestinian state; the movement is
more deeply divided than at any time in its history; and the people
aren’t doing very well.

Now the UN will probably give Palestine the status of a non-member
state. The only thing that will change is to convince people even more
that they are following a clever and successful strategy. They aren’t.

If we really want to take an
effective stand against extremism, we should not obsess over the
extremists; rather, we should tackle those who facilitate, empower and
legitimize extremism. The worst culprits are particular British Members
of Parliament – elected officials whom we employ to safeguard our
liberties and democratic rights but who betray these duties in favor of
promoting the work of terror advocates. We have given terror and its
apologists a platform, while we deny truth, reason and accountability a
voice.

On the 28th November, Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn will be hosting an event organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
in the British House of Commons with Mousa Abu Maria, an activist for
the proscribed terrorist organisation Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
Abu Maria will be speaking as part of a panel discussion – the
conclusion to an anti-Israel lobbying day held by the Palestine
Solidarity Campaign (PSC). The PSC is the leading anti-Israel
organisation in Britain, whose members are accused by human rights
activists of practising Holocaust denial and supporting terrorist groups such as Hamas.

The
Palestinian Authority wishes to achieve a number of political gains by
having the UN vote today, recognizing "Palestine" as a non-member
observer state. First, all lands that are disputed and whose future must
be negotiated according to the Oslo Accords, the PA wants declared
Palestinian "occupied territory." Second, they claim that UN recognition
would change the status of Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons to
legitimate freedom fighters and prisoners of war.

1- Changing the status of land under Israeli administration since 1967 to "occupied territory"

PA Foreign Minister Riad Al-Maliki:

"If
Palestine receives status of a non-member state in the General
Assembly, there will be positive effects on all levels in the future...
Israel will no longer be able to define the occupied territories as
disputed lands. They will become lands of a separate, occupied state."

Sultan Knish
The United States of America has a State Department, it has row after
row of people who speak badly every language from Arabic to Swahili
badly, and it has rich donors who take on the task of acting as
ambassadors to some foreign country every four to eight years. There are
think-tanks, actual tanks and institutes dedicated to turning out
papers on foreign policy. And despite all this, or perhaps because of
all this, the country still has no foreign policy.

Americans are by nature isolationist. American leaders, since Woodrow
Wilson dumped ashes from his pipe on the Oval Office carpets and dumped
America into the international game of empires, are bent on getting
involved in world politics. Unfortunately everything they know about
world politics comes from the back of cereal boxes. And yes that
includes our current precious genius who comes to us from eating dog and
living the life of a privileged member of Indonesia's upper classes,
but knows almost as little about the world outside Chicago, as he does
about economics.

As
you drive up the main road to Jerusalem, the world’s holiest city
welcomes you with a sign offering the universal greeting of shalom aleichem, the Hebrew equivalent for the Arabic salaam aleikum,
or “peace [be] upon you.” Yet Jerusalem’s status as the location of
innumerable holy and historic sites provided no immunity and no peaceful
shelter in the face of an encroaching tide of violence last week. On
Nov. 20, in the midst of a week during which nearly 1,500 rockets rained
down on Israel, a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip towards
Jerusalem, threatening nearly one million residents of diverse faiths
and nationalities. As sirens sounded around the city and pedestrians ran
for cover, the rocket landed harmlessly in the nearby West Bank, but
notice had been served: not even the world’s holiest places were safe
from the indiscriminate violence of Hamas.

Once again, billionaire investor Warren Buffett urges his fellow
high-on-the-hoggers to pay more in taxes. “Only in Grover Norquist’s
imagination,” says Buffett, do taxes make much of a difference in how
people invest. “So let’s forget about the rich and ultra-rich going on
strike and stuffing their ample funds under their mattresses if – gasp –
capital gains rates and ordinary income rates are increased. The
ultra-rich, including me, will forever pursue investment opportunities. …

“We need Congress, right now, to enact a minimum tax on high incomes.
I would suggest 30 percent of taxable income between $1 million and $10
million, and 35 percent on amounts above that.”

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Football (soccer) enthusiasts around the world are familiar with the
FIFA football federation (Fédération Internationale de Football
Association), and their Mission Statement is:

"...to improve the game of football constantly and promote it globally
in the light of its unifying, educational, cultural and humanitarian
values,particularly through youth and development programmes"

So why is FIFA trying to rebuild (again) the destroyed Football stadium in Gaza?

It was most recently destroyed (again) by the IDF 2 weeks ago, after
Hamas used the stadium to shoot Fajr-5 rockets at Greater Tel-Aviv and
at Jerusalem.

None
of the vital interests of peace appear in the resolution that will be
put forward before the General Assembly today and that is why Israel
cannot accept it.(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

GPO archive photo

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
this morning (Thursday, 29 November 2012), at the Menachem Begin
Heritage Center in Jerusalem, made the following statement:

"Israel is prepared to live in peace
with a Palestinian state, but for peace to endure, Israel's security
must be protected. The Palestinians must recognize the Jewish state and
they must be prepared to end the conflict with Israel once and for all.

Laura: Just when you think degenerate
leftists can’t be any more vile in their positions regarding the Jewish
state, they explicitly come out endorsing hamas rocket fire at Israeli
civilians. They are calling for the boycott of weapons sales to Israel
so that hamas can fire rockets at Israelis unobstructed. These are sick,
twisted, morally depraved people who see Israeli self-defense as
probematic rather than the genocidal hamas terrorists who’s charter
calls for the obliteration of Israel and the genocide of Jews. Every one
of these signatories should be forced to endure dodging rocket fire in
their neighborhoods. That worthless piece of excrement roger waters is
among the supporters of this depraved cause. He is the guy who came out
against Israel’s security fence, falsely calling it an “apartheid” wall.
There is no other way to describe these miscreants other than calling
them what they truly are, nazis. There is no other conclusion to be
drawn except that they support the mass murder of Jews. Who is going to
prevent hamas from receiving weapons? These scumbags don’t care about
that. The left is constantly harassing the beseiged and belleaguered
tiny Jewish state while it defends itself from attacks against genocidal
enemies surrounding it. But they are silent on islamic Jew-hatred, on
the real apartheid being practiced in muslim countries and the
persecution and murder of non-muslims. Take note of the entertainers
who signed this petition and boycott them.

Nobel peace laureates call for Israel military boycott over Gaza assault
Letter with 52 signatories including artists and activists also denounces US and EU ‘complicity’ through weapons sales

Iran
will go on refining uranium "with intensity" and the number of
enrichment centrifuges it has operating will rise substantially in the
current year, the country's nuclear
energy chief was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

The comments by
Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation,
signaled continued defiance in the face of international demands that
Tehran halt enrichment to the higher 20% fissile purity level, close
down its Fordow enrichment plant, and ship out its stockpile of the
material.

The
Arab Spring of democracy has deteriorated into a winter of mangled
hopes. At the heart of the growing disappointment is the zealous
portrayal of Sharia — Islamic law — as a political cause, as something
to be enforced rather than experienced, as a tool of one-upmanship
rather than an inspiration of noble ideals.

In Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, Sharia is being used by Islamist groups to
mobilise supporters and discredit opponents. The damage of this tactic
is not confined to the opponents of Islamists. The concept of Sharia
itself, I am convinced, will suffer.

ARAB NEWS Last Update 15 October 2012 1:39 pm The World Bank and
Islamic Development Bank have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
to set out a framework for collaboration between the two parties and
lend support to global, regional and country efforts in the development
of Islamic Finance. World Bank Managing Director Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin
and Islamic Development Bank Group President Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali
signed the memorandum on behalf of their institutions with the common
objectives of fostering, encouraging, and studying the expansion of
Islamic finance globally.

On
a sidewalk in Monterrey, Mexico -- a rich (by Mexican standards)
industrial city in the northern state of Nuevo Leon -- a kid, reasonably
well-dressed with clean clothes and flip-flops, approaches an American
and asks, "Por favor, usted me da dinero para la escuela?" (Will you
please give me money for school?)

In
southern Mexico, a 6 year old -- without any clothes -- approaches an
American, "Usted puede darme dinero para comer?" (Can you give me money
to eat?)In
the Kabul Green Zone, a clean-cut boy in a new school uniform -- dark
blue slacks with a light blue polo shirt -- catches up to some Americans
walking between bases. With some shock, one American realizes this is
the same boy who, just yesterday, was caked in dirt and wearing tattered
clothes while begging for a dollar.

In
Manila, kids offer to serve as guides, sell flowers, flag down a taxi
for pesos, or just beg. Their poverty runs the gamut from well-dressed,
well fed, and clean; to fed and relatively clean-cut kids wearing torn
hand-me downs in the squatter areas; to filthy, near feral looking
pre-teens without any clothes whatsoever.

The
Nov. 28 edition of the Washington Post grabs readers with a four-column
photograph at the top of the front page with a caption reading: "Aseel
Tafesh, 4, gathers her dolls from her home in a destroyed apartment
building in Gaza City, where an uneasy quiet has settled as a truce
between Israel and Hamas holds. The recent eight-day conflict killed 174
Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza."

One week after the conclusion of operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza, the
security reality alongside the Gaza Strip border is being reshaped, the IDF has
been instructed to show restraint, farmers on both sides are permitted to
stretch their tilled lands all the way to the border fence, and should a Hamas
or Islamic Jihad cell aim a rocket launcher at Israel, Israeli soldiers would
not be allowed to shoot at it before going through channels, Maariv reports this
morning.

A
host of resolutions passing annually by the General Assembly are not
legally binding documents by any measure. One needs only to read Article
10 of the UN Charter:

“The General Assembly may discuss any
questions or any matters within the scope of the present Charter or
relating to the powers and functions of any organs provided for in the
present Charter, and, except as provided in Article 12, may make recommendations to
the Members of the United Nations or to the Security Council or to both
on any such questions or matters” [italics by author].

Israel Matzav
They have nothing to say about Syria or Sudan or Somalia or anyplace
else in the world where people are being massacred daily, but days after
announcing that they were seeking to ban 'violent settlers,' the Jew-hating Europeans are seeking to ensure that no 'settlement products' enter their soon-to-be Islamic paradise.

Israel registered a protest with the EU last week regarding a conference
scheduled for Wednesday in Brussels about the possibility of labeling goods made
in the settlements.

Rafi Schutz, the Foreign Ministry’s deputy
director-general for Europe, called the ambassadors of Denmark, Ireland and the
EU to the ministry on November 19, in the midst of Operation Pillar of Defense,
to protest the scheduled meeting, called an “informal technical workshop on
settlement products and related policy issues.”

Schutz also protested by
phone to a ranking official at the British Embassy.
Britain, Ireland and
Denmark, as well as the EU’s foreign service, were singled out for promoting the
conference along with various NGOs.

Back in 2005, after Israel removed every soldier and settler from Gaza, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that
“from this day forward, there will be no security turmoil and weapons
chaos and abductions, which are not characteristic of our culture.” He
proved a poor prognosticator regarding Palestinian culture: given the
chance to live “side by side in peace and security” with Israel, the
Palestinians demonstrated they could not do so even with themselves.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

On the heels of Egyptian President Morsi's recent consolidation of power, polling data from a survey of 1,000 Likely Voters by Rasmussen Reports, conducted November 26-27, 2012, reveal once again that the American public is appropriately sober about what the much-ballyhooed Arab Spring "transitions" have wrought.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper continues to pick up the slack left by an absent American president who has abandoned freedom across the world.
Nothing makes Obama look so small as a real leader.

"[W]hen Israel, the only country in the world whose very existence is under attack, is consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation, I believe we are morally obligated to take a stand," Harper said last year.

The Canadian prime minister further affirmed that "as long as I am prime minister… Canada will take not that stand, whatever the cost."

In
1947 the British put the future of western Palestine into the hands of
the United Nations, the successor organization to the League of Nations
which had established the Mandate for Palestine. A UN Commission recommended partitioning what was left of the original Mandate – western Palestine – into two new states, one Jewish and one Arab. [1] Jerusalem and its surrounding villages were to be temporarily classified as an international zone belonging to neither polity.

What resulted was Resolution 181 [known also as the 1947 Partition Plan], a non-binding recommendation
to partition Palestine, whose implementation hinged on acceptance by
both parties – Arabs and Jews. The resolution was adopted on November
29, 1947 in the General Assembly by a vote of 33-12, with 10
abstentions. Among the supporters were the United States and the Soviet
Union, as well as other nations including France and Australia. The Arab
nations, including Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia denounced the
plan on the General Assembly floor and voted as a bloc against
Resolution 181 promisingto defy its implementation by force.

Israel's
Ambulance fleet always needs renewal and that is the job of the nonprofit
organization Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel's national
emergency medical, disaster, ambulance and blood bank services.
With the threat, in real time, of terror and rocket attacks from the north, by
Hezbollah, and, as we see these days, from Hamas in the south, Israel cannot
afford to be short of ambulances. Israel is now short of 100 ambulances and it
can no longer afford to move ambulances from one part of the country, as it has
been doing thus far, per call and as needed. Each region must be fully equipped
and be ready, within seconds, to go save a life.

Seven
people, each one donates $15,000 equals one more ambulance for Israel
manufactured in Indiana, USA.

We cannot, and must not, stand
for a religion that will limit our ability to speak, especially a
religion that openly calls for the murder of people of other religions,
and often even its own.

The Sydney police force announced a few weeks ago that, in
anticipation of more hostile Islamic street protests similar to those
that several weeks ago had turned violent, it intended to increase its
numbers by several hundred. The original protest, sparked by the YouTube
video that mocked the Islamic prophet Mohammed, featured people
sporting placards that read, "Behead those who insult the prophet," and
ended with at least nine arrests.

Sydney, Australia? A place that prides itself on racial and religious
tolerance and for being a land of broad multi-culturalism? Well, as the
young Muslim, Mohammed Zuhbi from Liverpool Sydney told reporter Tom
Tilley from Triple J, "We don't want to apologize for our behaviour, or
feel like we need to justify our existence because of this."

Zuhbi then asked how else can you express yourself when you are
seeing death on a global scale, besides being violent. He went on to
claim it was a peaceful protest, but had escalated when the police
"provoked" them with batons and pepper spray -- just as the Americans
had provoked them into violence with their unforgivable treatment of
Muslims, including Israeli provocations.

In reality Hamas has not changed
or relinquished its dream of replacing Israel with an Islamist state
that is funded and armed by Iran. Unless Hamas changes its charter, the
talk about changes in its strategy only serves to spread the movement's
campaign of deception.

Is Hamas really on its way to moderation and pragmatism, as some Western political analysts and diplomats have come to believe?

And what do some Hamas leaders mean when they say that they are ready
to accept a Palestinian state "only" in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and
east Jerusalem?

These questions were raised after CNN recently aired an interview with Hamas "political leader" Khaled Mashaal.

Mashaal told CNN's Christiane Amanpour: "I accept a Palestinian state
according to 1967 borders with Jerusalem as the capital, with the right
of return [of millions of Palestinians to Israel]."

The Hamas leader's remark has since been misinterpreted by some
Westerners as a sign that the radical Islamist movement, which was
established 25 years ago with the declared goal of destroying Israel,
has now abandoned its ideology and is on its way to endorsing a softer
approach.

Sultan Knish
It would be tempting to attribute the disaster spreading across the
Middle East to a brief flirtation with democracy snake oil, but for the
better part of the last century the political class of the United States
could talk of nothing else. Nearly every war was fought was to spread
democracy, protect democracy or worship at the altar of democracy.

For much of the 20th Century it was the working assumption of the sort
of men who got up to give speeches in crowded halls that it was
democracy that made America special. But it is not so much that
democracy made America special, as America made democracy special and
workable. And that is because democracy only works when government is
limited. When government power isn't limited, then democracy is just
tyranny with a popular vote behind it.

I’d like to introduce a new term: Rekab
Street. That’s Baker Street spelled backwards, and it represents the
opposite of Sherlock Holmes’ approach: rather than notice the anomalies
and detect evidence of criminal or shameful activity that people have
deliberately tried to conceal, residents of Rekab Street systematically
ignore any clues that violate the expectations/demands of their
preconceived narrative, sweeping aside the anomalies and highlighting
precisely what has been created to mislead. It is, in a sense, a process
of stupefaction.

Rekab Street exists in many fields.

In a sense, Thomas Kuhn’s book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, focuses on the problem, in particular, on the resistance to anomalies that contradict the paradigm. He cites a study by Bruner and Postman
about how the resistance to anomalies that violate expectations can be
so strong that people can literally not see that a deck has some playing
cards with red spades and black hearts. The authors note the psychological discomfort felt by people confronting these anomalies (which their minds literally do not want to see).

An Islamic Jihad local commander was killed today in an Israeli air
strike on a tower that is used by many international media outlets, a
source in the terrorist group has said.
It was initially reported that the dead man was the owner of a computer
store on the third storey of the city centre building, however it has
come to light that Israel's targeting of the building is in fact
legitimate.

The news comes as many international media organisations claimed that
Israel should avoid targeting buildings which house journalists, however
Israel has assured the international media that it has indeed targeting
terrorist facilities placed within or on top of the building, and that
the building was used by terrorist outfits to house command and
communication posts.

It's the second strike on the building in two days. The Hamas TV station, Al Aqsa, is located on the top floor.

Islamic Jihad sent a text message to reporters today stating that Ramez
Harb, who was responsible for propaganda in Islamic Jihad's Gaza City
Brigade and served as an aide to Tissir Jabari, was killed by the
Israeli strike.

The prospect of Britain backing the Palestinian UN bid shows just how deep anti-Israel feeling goes at the Foreign Office

Just a few weeks ago I spoke to a senior Israeli official who waxed
lyrical and enthusiastic at the prospect of Britain playing the
"responsible adult in the room" when it comes to international
discussion of the conflict with the Palestinians. I liked the concept,
but I can't say I was optimistic.

When all is said and done, British foreign policy over the
Israel-Palestine conflict has been designed over years and decades to
please peoples and governments that would really rather Israel didn't
exist at all. This has produced what is best described as an
anti-Zionist subculture inside the Foreign Office (FCO). Subcultures, as
opposed to policies, are not easily overturned.

It looked as though I was going to be proved right all too quickly as
the Foreign Office initially dithered over Israel's recent response to
rocket fire from Gaza. But then out came the Prime Minister and even the
Foreign Secretary with statements expressing a clear recognition that
Hamas had started it all.

Sure, that wasn't, how shall I put it, rocket science. But even getting
the British foreign policy establishment to state the blindingly
obvious counts as something of an achievement when it comes to Israel.

MADDOW: You know what? Here’s the country, here’s the
kind of thing you put over like a cake to protect the cake from flies.
Missiles don’t work that way. That’s the whole idea of SDI. We’ll protect ourselves by shooting missiles at other missiles.It’s never worked in a test. We spent billions on it.
MOORE: It’s worked.
MADDOW: And anybody who understands this knows it can never work.
MOORE: If you don’t think it works, then why did the Russians not want us to do it?
MADDOW: The Russians were very happy to sign this thing.
MOORE: No they weren’t. They didn’t want us to do SDI because they knew they didn’t want us to blow up their missiles.
MADDOW: You know what? If you think you can shoot the bullet with the
other bullet, you can have an awesome life in Annie Oakley’s side show,
but you should not be in charge of billions of dollars of the defense
budget. It’s such a hysterical fantasy. I love it.

Maddow was not out of line with general Democratic thinking, and the Democratic president who routinely referred to “unproven missile defense systems” as targets of budget cuts.

It is bad enough that a
small country like Israel has to contend with the likes of Qatar and
their fellow travelers in the Arab world, but to have them embraced by
the ruling elites in the US and Europe increases the danger to Israel
exponentially.

The author is a retired attorney and the editor of Israpundit. In 2009 he made aliya and is
now living in Jerusalem.

Qatar is a small country with few people (1.87 million of which only
300,000 are citizens), yet it casts a giant shadow over N. Africa, the
Middle East and Europe.
It has the highest GDP per capita in the
world and the highest energy reserves per capita in the world. While it
treats its women more liberally than S. Arabia does, it has been
indicted for immigrant labour violations and human trafficking. It is
notorious for how badly it treats its foreign workers.
The U.S. Department of State’s 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report reports:

“Qatar
is a destination country for men and women subjected to forced labor
and, to a lesser ‎extent, forced prostitution. [They] voluntarily
migrate ‎to Qatar as low-skilled laborers and domestic servants, but
some subsequently face conditions ‎of involuntary servitude.

Gazans offered very public thanks to Iran
on Tuesday for helping them in this month's fight against Israel,
when Iranian-made missiles were fired out of the Palestinian enclave towards Jerusalem
and Tel Aviv.

"Thank you Iran," said large billboards on three major road junctions
in the Gaza Strip – the first time there has been such public
acknowledgement of Iran's role in the arming of Islamic militants in the
tiny territory.

Marton Gyongyosi of Jobbik party calls for list of Jews who are threat to country; Jewish groups: Reminiscent of Nazi policy.

Photo: REUTERS

Jewish groups reacted furiously on Tuesday to far-right Hungarian political
leader Marton Gyongyosi’s suggestion that the government draw up a list of Jews
in Hungary who posed a “national security threat.”

Speaking on Monday in
the Hungarian parliament about the recent hostilities between Israel and the
Hamas regime in Gaza, Gyongyosi said, “I think such a conflict makes it timely
to tally up people of Jewish ancestry who live here, especially in the Hungarian
Parliament and the Hungarian government, who pose a national security risk to
Hungary.”

This is a problem that can only be solved with higher taxes,
union ownership of government and illegal immigration. And by solved, I
mean empty the state of everyone who earns a living without working for
the government and speaks English which will turn California into a
place that Greece favorably compares itself to.

California residents already contend with one of the most
progressive tax codes in the country. Not only does California have
high marginal rates, those high rates kick in at relatively modest
income levels. California’s middle class residents earning $48,000 a
year, for example, pay a state tax rate of 9.3%. Millionaires in 47
other states don’t even pay that high of a marginal rate. However, one
of the state tax code’s greatest flaws is it’s over-reliance on upper
income households and the revenue volatility it creates, and that is a
problem that Prop. 30 would further exacerbate.

Or what the New York Times and the Guardian would call an outrageous
overreaction by a colonizing power against indigenous militants fighting
for freedom and the right to kill women and children.

39-year-old Yael Matzpun
was sleeping in a room with her four-year-old daughter and two-year-old
son when she was awoken by heavy footsteps in the hall. She knew that
her husband, an IDF officer, was not due at home.

“Suddenly I saw a terrorist in a kefiyyeh [head scarf] standing opposite me,” she told Maariv. “I decided that if I didn’t fight, he would murder me and my four children, there would be a massacre like in Itamar, where the Fogels and three of their children were murdered in their home.”
The terrorist turned on the light and said something in Arabic, she
recalled. He had a knife in one hand and a metal pipe in the other.
Suddenly he lunged at Yael, stabbing her in the face and shoulder.

Since these are going to be crucial negotiations to resolve major issues on both sides, one might expect that the Post would
pay equal attention to each side's agenda and demands. But
unfortunately, this isn't the case. From start to finish, Hauslohner and
Birnbaum limit their reporting to Hamas's demands. And for good
measure, they even toss in some pro-Hamas spin of their own.

The most important goal of dialogue is "to introduce Islam" and "to correct the erroneous slanders raised against Islam." — Saudi Press Agency

Saudi Arabia has officially opened the doors of a controversial new
"interreligious and intercultural dialogue center" in the Austrian
capital, Vienna.

The King Abdullah International Center for Inter-Religious and Inter-Cultural Dialogue was inaugurated during an elaborate ceremony
at the Hofburg Palace in downtown Vienna on November 26. More than 650
high-profile guests from around the world attended the event, including
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and the foreign ministers of the
center's three founding states, Austria, Spain and Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis say the purpose of the multi-million-dollar institution -- which will be headquartered at the Palais Sturany
in the heart of Vienna and will have the status of an international
organization -- is to "foster dialogue" between the world's major
religions in order to "prevent conflict."

There is a question mark after
"Normalcy" because it's more than a bit difficult to ascertain precisely what
"normal" is. But I'm aiming for it, certainly in my own life.
Postings will resume their regular frequency -- which means they will be sent
often, but not necessarily every day. To my many readers who have
written to me in past days, please know that I've done my best in terms of
responding.

The world at large is definitely
"certifiable." But even here in Israel, I think a bit "crazy" is what's
normal. And we'll see that as I write today.

~~~~~~~~~~

We start with a disturbing
follow-up on the ceasefire, which immediately illustrates how crazy things
are:

A ceasefire agreement was drafted
and made public when the fighting stopped last week. It has been analyzed
up and down and sideways, with regard to its legality and the implications of
its every word. Some analysts staunchly maintain that we are not required
to honor it because it was not signed -- that it is not even a legitimate legal
document.

CFACT sends delegation to COP18,
the UN Climate Summit in Qatar
Will a reelected President Obama move the United States towards a new UN climate treaty by 2015?

Both President Obama and Governor Romney avoided climate change
whenever possible throughout the 2012 campaign. Yet on election night
Obama declared, “we want our children to live in an America … that isn’t
threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.” President
Obama’s renewed interest (now that he no longer must face the voters),
set the stage for COP 18, the UN climate summit , taking place from
November 26th to December 30th.

At first glance I thought they were KKK too; then I saw the waist
suicide bombs (utility belts?). I immediately realized even KKK aren't
that stupid. In contrast, IDF and real soldiers carry -- you know --
ammunition.

We are hypocrites and cowards - we take freedom for granted as it is eroding underneath our feet‏

Message to offended Muslims

A GOOD, TRUE STORY NOT KNOWN BY MANY.....Air Force.

The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

What happened?

Mark Hasten Tribute Video Touro College

Housing Quiz

The Record-so far...!

CBS special on Bengazi

Report: 83 percent of doctors have considered quitting over Obamacare

Sally Nelson

Eighty-three percent of American physicians have considered leaving their practices over President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, according to a survey released by the Doctor Patient Medical Association.

Islamization on the move

"What we are dealing with is Islamization. Islamization is the imposition of ideological norms in increasing severity. Like Nazification, it transforms a society by remaking it in its own image from the largest to the smallest of details."Daniel Greenfield

Toronto rejects Anti-Israel Ads...

Shrinking Lands

Why Israel opposes international forces in the jordan valley/

/why-israel-opposes-international-forces-in-the-jordan-valley/

Islam is Islam, And That’s It

Back in 2007, when confronted with the phrase “moderate Islam”, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan famously responded: “These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it.”

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading and annotating this video: View video at http://gatesofvienna.net/

There's no racist like a liberal racist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vz4PjxSmtoI

Ex-Navy SEAL Drops Bombshell On FOX: Says Government is Creating Conditions to Impose Martial Law R

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDuds14OBiE#t=156

American surprise

The Nairobi Mall Massacre

Ninh Chu Ninh Chu

Islam Untied

Platitudes about Islam being a faith of peace are not credible anymore. Islam is only as good as the way its followers practice it; and if they have created killing fields in the name of Islam, then Islam will be recognized by the silence of those who did not speak out when their faith was being massacred to massacre humanity.

AFTERBURNER w/ BILL WHITTLE: The Lynching

What-are you against peace?

Sydney Wake Up The Horrific Muslim Infiltration Of Britain - Luton

Kerry: 'Core Issue of Instability ... Is the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict'‏

Kerry is no friend. By endorsing the "Arab peace initiative" he shows his true intentions and beliefs . And by endorsing linkage he shows that he is either a liar or a fool.Syria is on fire, Egypt is at best incredibly unstable and this is due to Israel? It is out in the open!

A word to left-wing students

In their own words-ru listening?

"The lesson these Islamist groups appear to be drawing from events in Egypt is that democratic engagement with opponents is pointless. And that doesn't bode well for countries with strong Islamist movements..."

Flashback: Obama Admits He Cut Medicare

Another Democratic slogan blown to h....

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

When nations and cultures ignore the early warning signs of the infiltration of radical Islam

The UK has 85 sharia courts. France has over 750 “no go zones,” Muslim enclaves where even French police don’t enter.

Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDKk15KcqNk&feature=email

No such thing as "Islamophobia"

However, if you do not want your positions challenged or criticized or even researched, make up a new "phobia"-shout it long enough and some "people", agenda driven, will use it. Ay, yes, the false term does keep many, many financially rewarded-follow the money.gs don morris, Ph.D.

Khader Adnan: Leader of Islamic jihad or innocent baker?

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.More...

Omar Barghouti's Propaganda at USC on January 12, 2012

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’ -- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.Clare M. Lopez

Americans are opening their eyes

Advertisers fleeing All-American Muslim 'propaganda'The American people are seeing through the propaganda piece that is TLC's All-American Muslim reality/dawah show, and responsible advertisers are fleeing in droves. The show aims to combat a trumped-up problem, "Islamophobia," by presenting Muslims who are just ordinary folk, and

Why Islam is Incompatible with Western Law

Col. Allen West answers a question on muslim terror

Challah's Gaza Rocket Counter

This Month:4Last Month:191

This Year: 562

Total since 2002: 12055

Cease fire Hamas style!!

Thanks http://challahhuakbar.blogspot.com/

"Islamophobia"

"Islamophobia" was a politically manipulative coinage designed to silence critics of Islamic supremacism.It was invented, deliberately, by a Muslim Brotherhood front organization, the International Institute for Islamic Thought, which is based in Northern Virginia.

10 Unknown West Bank Facts

Liberals Redefine "Extremism" and the "Political Center"

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist.The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

Don’t ever call it ‘West Bank’ again

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

Who do the territories belong to?

The legal borders of Israel under international law

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror YeminiIn 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state. Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

How Liberals Argue

Hebrew Univ-you rock!!

Judea and Samaria are not "occupied" lands-why?

Judea-Samaria were not only parts of the ancient Jewish homeland but were recognized as part of the Jewish National Home recognized by San Remo and the League of Nations [1920, 1922] and by the UN charter [article 80; 1945].

"Political Correctness."

"Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rapidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."Texas A&M

Christopher Monckton Speaking in St. Paul on the climate issues

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

WHAT Golda Meir actually said...

"When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state? It was either southern Syria before the First World War, and then it was a Palestine including Jordan. It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist." Golda Meir June 15, 1969: Interview in the UK Sunday Times

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

About Me

Semi-retired Professor, now also permanent resident of Israel;divides time between both countries-serves on several Boards of Directors for Israel advocacy groups;Chana, resident of Jerusalem, JCPA member